


Familiar

by pesky_poltergeist



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Gen, Phic Phight, Phic phight 2020, Shapeshifting, duplication, powers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-02
Updated: 2020-04-02
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:20:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 598
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23446894
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pesky_poltergeist/pseuds/pesky_poltergeist
Summary: “I’ve bit myself sev—OW!—eight times already!”Vlad pressed two fingers to his temples. “Daniel,” he said, and then stopped, because honestly, what was he going to say?Daniel (the human Daniel) was looking at Vlad pleadingly. Daniel (the wolf) was biting Daniel on the hips, growling playfully and bouncing around the office floor. There were claw marks gouged into the bocote floors.
Relationships: Danny Fenton & Vlad Masters
Comments: 19
Kudos: 107
Collections: Phic Phight!





	Familiar

**Author's Note:**

> For Bonuscat's phic phight prompt, “I’ve bit myself sev—OW!—eight times already!”

“I’ve bit myself sev—OW!—eight times already!”

Vlad pressed two fingers to his temples. “Daniel,” he said, and then stopped, because honestly, what was he going to say?

Daniel (the human Daniel) was looking at Vlad pleadingly. Daniel (the wolf) was biting Daniel on the hips, growling playfully and bouncing around the office floor. There were claw marks gouged into the bocote floors.

“Well? Are you going to say anything?” he asked.

“Fine. Sometimes I wonder how you’re alive, but then I remember through stupid courses of actions such as this, you _aren’t._ Please, Daniel, remind me what I’ve taught you about shapeshifting.”

Daniel scowled, baring his teeth, then yelped as his wolf bit him again.

“That—OW!—that it takes _a great deal of concentration, lest the beast get the better of you,”_ he said, his tone clearly a mocking imitation of Vlad’s own.

Vlad leaned back into his office chair, the leather creaking as he moved. He let the words sit in the air for a moment. “Then you _were_ listening. Shocking. Then tell me, what have I taught you about duplication?”

“I don’t see how this will help me,” Daniel said. The wolf howled to get his attention, then bit him again when he didn’t receive it. That made twelve bites, if Vlad had kept proper count.

“Humor me,” Vlad said dryly.

“That… duplication also takes a great deal of concentration?” he asked. “Ow!” That made thirteen.

Vlad snarled. “No! That it takes _self-control._ You—!” he stood up, pushing his chair out behind him. He smoothed his hair back and adjusted the buttons on his coat. _Compose yourself,_ he chided.

Vlad looked over at the boy—boys? Boy and his dog?—to see Daniel had taken up his ghost form and was floating a few feet in the air. The wolf remained on the ground, not for lacking the ability of flight, but for the fact that it was so huge it didn’t need to. The wolf was becoming agitated, pacing underneath Daniel and occasionally nipping at his ankles.

“The problem is hardly complicated, Daniel. You made a duplicate, which by _nature_ has a life of its own, and then instructed it to shapeshift, an act that requires the full concentration of your mind—a _full_ mind, not half of one!” Vlad straightened the sleeves of his coat. “Your duplicate shapeshifted successfully, because _you_ can shapeshift successfully, and immediately lost its small, loaned fragment of your mind to the baser instincts of the animal.”

“Right, right, I get it!” Daniel yelled, his tone accompanied by an unearthly, metallic dinning that echoed through the office. “I got it, I made a mistake! How come I can’t just—reabsorb this duplicate like any other?”

“Because, you foolish boy, it isn’t a duplicate anymore. It no longer possesses your mind—not the way a duplicate should, anyhow. It’s a _familiar_. Dispelling it is not so simple, and as things are, I suspect highly dangerous.”

“A familiar?” Daniel asked, brows scrunched together. _Heavens, does this boy know anything?_

“An alter ego—that is, another self—that takes animal form. It has a life of its own but remains linked to its master, and seeks to aid its master in all things.”

“Then why is it biting me?” Daniel asked.

Vlad rubbed his temples. “It’s _feral._ An accident. Uncontrolled.”

The wolf jumped up, snapping at the wisps of Daniel’s hair.

Vlad sighed. He supposed he could find it in himself to pity the fool and offer assistance. “Simply put, it’s biting you because you haven’t trained it. Call Samantha.”

**Author's Note:**

> this probably isn't the last you'll see of Danny's familiar. I want to keep working with the concept


End file.
